question about using my new Senn's

[JeRi]

hey everyone, i just recieved my new pair of Sennheiser HD515's today, and i promptly busted them out of the box to see how they fit and how the audio sounded. except when i went to plug them into the wired remote control from my I-Trigue 2.1 3300 speakers, and all i get is audio in the left ear. I then proceeded to plug them directly into my audio port in my motherboard by disconnecting the speakers, and everything sounded great. so what i'm puzzled by is why i only get audio in one ear when using the remote? i would rather use the remote to control the volume, as opposed to directly plugging them into my computer, leaving me to have to manually set the volume before playing a game or listening to audio....if i can only get one line out of the remote, what other options (if any) do i have that will allow me to use these and still control the volume and bass through the remote?

 

[Mister X]

Did you have the phones plugged into the jack on the remote all of the way?


The bass dial on the remote will not do anything and all the volume dial does is raise the noise floor so you may notice that you prolly better off connecting the cans directly to the sound card.

 

[JeRi]

yeah it's in all the way...it may just not be making good contact with it, because for whatever reason they have the headphone jack on the right side of the front of the remote, not in the middle. if i only plug it in most of the way, then i get only on the other side...guess i'll play around with it and see if it improves any. if not, guess i'll just be plugging it into the back of the computer every time i wanna use em (annoying, but i guess i'll suck it up ) would getting a multifunction panel for one of my empty front bays do anything to help, so i can just plug the senns directly into the front, and leave my speakers hooked up in the back? don't know how that would work, if it all...


something like this:

http://www.svc.com/sst-fp32-s.html

 

[Elec]

For about 5 bucks at Radio Shack, you can get a stereo mini to mini splitter (either a Y-cable or solid adapter). Plug that sucker into your sound card's front speaker output and then connect the speakers to one side of the Y and headphones to the other. Problem solved!

I'd give you a part number but Radio Shack recently screwed up their website and it's now a lot harder to find what you're looking for on there

 

[JeRi]

heh ok, never even thought of that...will take a drive over to the local RS down the street tomorrow and pick one up. thanks for the tip

 

[FaRKle0079]

I did that, they run about $6.

 

[JeRi]

i found a splitter in my laptop bag, works like a charm...just gotta turn the speakers off when just playing music normally/gaming and the sound on the Senns is superb. Got to say i'm very pleased so far (just played a level in CoD2 and the quality was top notch

 

[AdamW]

They'll sound a lot better that way anyway. The headphone output on multimedia speaker sets is _always_ awful.

 

[Mister X]

Now that you figured out the best way to connect your cans may I be so bold as to suggest a new sound card?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829120103

 

[JeRi]

heh, when i first saw that u posted a link, i was expecting maybe the new X-Fi or something along those lines, which i just can't possibly do at the moment (taking a vacation to Italy with my girlfriend over thanksgiving break)...but i clicked and was surprised to see it's only 25 bucks....so will it really make a difference if i get a soundcard like the one you suggested? i'm no audiophile like many of you, just the casual gamer and listen to music when i have spare time (which isn't that often since i'm in college), so right now everything sounds pretty good to me lol. i do eventually want to upgrade my speakers to maybe a 5.1 setup, but i don't have nearly enough deskroom for all those speakers on this crappy desk that was supplied with my room, so i'll have to make do with the speakers i have for the time being (about 2 years old already).

 

[Mister X]

Yea... the AV-710 is a pretty nice stereo source for music.
The catch is it's not exactly a stellar gaming card and it's not a very good multichannel sound card.
It also has a hard time driving capacitive loads without an amp but it will sound much better then your current onboard solution.


If you were to spend an extra $4 you could pick up a *retail* soundblaster Live 24 bit card which does better at gaming, it has better multichannel support and it also can drive capacitive loads (like headphones) better then the AV-710
The catch is the AV-710 sounds a little better in high res mode.


Do you see the steep slope you started down?




The Creative Ebay store is always a cheaper alternative to paying retail prices for a live 24 card but they are refurbished cards.....

http://cgi.ebay.com/Creative-Sound-...97688QQcategoryZ44981QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

 

[JeRi]

noooooooooo.....must.....resist...temptations.....


lol


those refurbished cards look like a decent price...how about one of those audigy cards they have for like 25 bucks? would that be a good step up from the live 24 card? because that's still a decent price range for me

 

[Mister X]

Nope, the original Audigy card is a better gaming card then the other two we discussed previously but it sucks for music.